


Lifebringer

by Dorksidefiker



Category: The Transformers (IDW Generation One), Transformers - All Media Types
Genre: Kidnapping, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Set in a nebulous post The Rod Squad getting the Lost Light back, Whirl Being Whirl, Whirl will be Whirl for a good cause
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-10-07
Updated: 2017-10-11
Packaged: 2019-01-10 09:42:29
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,684
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12296520
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dorksidefiker/pseuds/Dorksidefiker
Summary: Things had been going so well until Rung was kidnapped.





	1. Chapter 1

Things had been going so well until the squad of black painted mechs kidnapped Rung.

It felt like they were making actual progress for once; Rodimus's map/desk had lead them to a genuine lost Cybertronian colony that had actual first hand accounts of a Knight of Cybertron's prolonged stay. Not in anyone's living memory, but recent enough that there were actual historical documents rather than the mythology that they frequently found themselves chasing. The crew of the _Lost Light_ had been greeted as new friends and allies, with much made of them by the government of the colony's sole (and largely vestigial) space port.

The crew, for their part, was happy to take advantage of the friendly port for some shore leave while the officers (mostly Ultra Magnus and Drift, though occasionally Rodimus actually turned his hand to research) poured over millennia old accounts of the Knight that had temporarily called the colony home.

No one had thought anything of the way the black painted mech had stared at Rung when he accidentally bumped into him in the street; the _Lost Light's_ arrival was the talk of the space port, and the crew had achieved minor celebrity status during their stay. No one thought anything about the way more of the black painted mechs threaded their way through the crowded open air market Rung decided to visit; he was hardly the only crew member there, and the black painted mechs weren't the only natives there done up with matching paint jobs.

The glares they gave While were just as easily dismissed. They were hardly the only bots who found the way the former Wrecker mocked Rung and his perusal of the booths to be crass and obnoxious, and the way he knocked Rung right into the rust stick vendor drew more than a few glares.

It also got Whirl sent back to the _Lost Light_ by Ultra Magnus.

In hindsight, Whirl's dismissal was likely what they had been waiting for.

With only Rewind close at hand, it had been easy for the black painted mechs to surround Rung and drag him off. Rewind himself, they disabled with an EM pulse that left him unable to move or call for assistance until Rung and his kidnappers were long gone.

* * *

 

They'd locked him in an empty storage closet.

Rung paced the confines of his makeshift prison again, mulling over possible methods of escape.

There were no convenient windows to crawl through. The vent in the ceiling was far too small to accommodate even his slim frame (and was well out of reach in any case). The door remained both stubbornly locked and resistant to Rung's attempts to break it down. The walls were thick, too thick to dig through with just his servos. And whoever had taken him had thoughtfully jammed his comm, leaving him unable to contact anyone from the _Lost Light_.

That left Rung with no recourse but to wait and ponder why he had been taken.

Had the bot he'd bumped in to taken serious offence to the incident? It seemed odd and highly disproportionate (Rung _had_ apologized) but it wasn't wholly outside the realm of possibility. Four million years of war had taught him that.

But if this was payback, why had they been so _careful_ with him? They had restrained him, certainly, but the only real _blow_ had been a very precise strike that had temporarily offlined his vocalizer.

More likely, they wanted him for a hostage to use against the _Lost Light_.

If that was the case, they would have been better off taking Rewind. At least people remembered _him_.

Not that anyone on the colony would know that.

 _They have to know I'm missing by now,_ Rung told himself. Rewind would have alerted the others. They _would_ be looking.

 _"_ Alright, what are you hiding?"

Rung cocked his head, antenna twitching. Throughout his abduction, none of his kidnappers had spoken. Perhaps this was a chance to learn something."

"Hiding, Mistress Pit Pass?"

Whoever the chosen spokesbot was, he was not a good liar.

"Don't play dumb. The only reason you lot would be huddled around a storage closet is if you were hiding _something_. I swear to Primus, if you've got another turbofox in there-!"

"No, Mistress Pit Pass. We learned out lesson the last time."

"So what is it, then?"

Silence.

"Parma. Open the door."

"I do not take orders from you, Mistress. Only from Lord Inflamment."

"And just _imagine_ how he'd take it if I had to go to him and tell him that his bodyguards were hiding something in the closet, and could he please order them to open the damn door?"

More silence.

The door burst open. A large green bot was shoved into the closet, and Rung barely caught a glimpse of his kidnappers before the door slammed shut again, leaving Rung in the company of their latest victim.

She wasn't the largest bot Rung had ever met, but she was certainly bulky enough to make the already small closet positively claustrophobic.

She stared at Rung, and Rung stared back.

"You... are not a turbofox."

"No," Rung agreed.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Someone has given Whirl a fusion cannon, and everyone is having a bad day.

Someone had given Whirl a fusion cannon, and _everyone_ was having a bad day.

Rodimus was determined to make it a worse day for whoever had taken Rung than it was for his crew. That was why Whirl _still_ had the fusion cannon as he stalked through the market. It was amazing how people just opened right up when confronted with an angry helicopter aiming something just short of of a weapon of mass destruction at their heads.

"Who. Took. Eyebrows?" Whirl shook the merchant he'd latched on to with one claw, cradling the mech's helm in the barrel of the cannon. Rodimus didn't know why Whirl had chosen this one to terrorize, and he honestly didn't care; he was going to let the homicidal ex-Wrecker take the lead until they got what they wanted.

"F-forgive me, I, I do not- who is 'Eyebrows'?" The merchant, wisely, didn't squirm or fight or do anything that might cause Whirl to pull the trigger. Good instincts on him.

Rodimus stepped in, all smiles. "Whirl, Whirl, my friend. Put the nice mech down so we can talk about this like civilized beings." He turned that smile - all denta and oh so sharp - on the merchant. "Hi. A few hours ago, someone took one of our friends. About so high, orange, glasses, _really_ impressive set of eyebrows? I'm sure you remember him." Rodimus nodded, and the trembling merchant nodded along, nearly hitting his helm on the edge of the fusion cannon. "Good, that's good."

Whirl continued to loom menacingly. The rest of the market was surrounded by more very well armed members of the crew, all of them doing their best to look equally menacing. None of them was as heavily armed as Whirl, but they were impressive enough to keep the rest of the witnesses from wandering off before Rodimus and Whirl could chat with them.

It wasn't _everyone_ , of course. Teams were already sweeping through the space port, and a skeleton crew aboard the _Lost Light_ was making sure no one could slip off-planet while they monitored the airwaves, hunting for any signs of Rung or who took him. Attempting to comm Rung himself had gotten no response; either he was off-line, or being kept somewhere where he couldn't get the ping.

Ultra Magnus and Drift were asking questions of the local leaders. Rodimus didn't think they'd get very far; multiple, identically painted mechs meant organization, which meant _backing_ , and Rodimus was willing to bet that the backing was on a governmental level.

Black was a good color for goon squads.

"Now, the last time my buddy Rung was seen, he was being grabbed by... eh. Rewind, just show him the picture?"

Rewind came forward, Chromedome hovering behind like an extra shadow, replaying the snippet from Rung's kidnapping from just before the kidnappers had offlined him.

Rodimus watched the merchant's face, noting the way his optics widened. The way his expression turned from terrified confusion to terrified _understanding_.

He shook his helm slightly. "I don't know them."

The fusion cannon hummed ominously.

"I don't know!" The merchant shrieked. "They're not from _here_ and I'm sorry they took your lifebringer but I don't know anything!"

Rodimus gently moved the fusion cannon aside. "What," he asked, "is a _lifebringer_?"

* * *

 

Pit Pass loomed apologetically over Rung. "I'm so sorry about this," she repeated, trying to make herself as small as possible as she sat down, back against the door. "I don't know what they were-" She turned her helm, shouting through the door. "I don't know what you glitchy pests were thinking!"

" _You_ didn't see the shameful way they treated him," the one Rung now knew as Parma retorted. "He didn't even have any bodyguards! Just that thug who pushed him around and a little fellow."

"I've never needed them," Rung said. Not exactly true, there were certainly many times when having a bodyguard would have been extremely useful, but beyond a few rare instances where he was being escorted on an important mission, he'd never had any.

Pit Pass looked mildly surprised by the revelation, but she continued to address their captors. "That's _no_ excuse. He's a person, Parma, not some stray! He's got a crew that's probably looking for him right now."

"The offworlders clearly have no appreciation for their lifebringer."

Rung half climbed over Pit Pass, knocking on the locked door. "I'm sorry, but I think you've made a mistake. I'm _not_ whatever it is you think I am."

Pit Pass pitched her voice low, so it wouldn't carry. "Look, I know you're trying to help, but as stupid as they are, these guys know a lifebringer. It's part of their programming."

"I'm not trying to pull anything," Rung insisted. "I'm not this... this 'lifebringer'."

Rung's insistence was met with puzzled silence. "Are you - oh Primus, you're serious."

"See? We had to take him! Wherever he's from, they've kept him ignorant of what he _is_!"

"Parma. Shut up."


End file.
